“You’re our man, Fred. What have we got? What can we roll in?”
“I need about ten bodies to help. We can drive in the old school buses and fill the gaps with scrap, dumpsters, barrels and the like,” he replied.
“I think I saw that in a movie once,” Jeff muttered.
“The Williams folks just had a ton of chain link fencing delivered to expand their kennels. It’s still rolled up on their property. We could try to fence the barricade as well,” Jensen offered.
“Sounds good.”
“Layla, this is Kiki Jones. She’s Lil’s and Orlando’s daughter—they didn’t make it. She had an idea,” Tom said.
Kiki’s eyes were red and swollen from crying. Dark rings made half-moons under her brown eyes. “Well,” Kiki started, “I did a project at college with short wave radios. I might be able to get a radio up and running. Maybe we can see if there are other survivors out there. But I need to see if there is some equipment in the school.”
“Great idea,” I said, smiling encouragingly at her, “take whatever you need.” She reminded me of my fencing students. I choked down the wave of despair that bubbled up as I realized they were probably all dead.
“I can give a hand with that,” Gary told Tom and Kiki. “I used to play around with the CB. I have some stuff that might help.”
“Alright then. Let’s split up. This group can go with Fred,” I said, portioning off the crowd. “The rest of you will keep patrol. We need to set up a schedule, get on rotating shifts. Jensen, can you put that together and let people know when they are on patrol?”
He nodded affirmatively.
Summer waved at me. “I’ll come with you to Mara Hunting Club. They have bulk food stored up there, and I have a key,” she said, dangling a key chain in front of her.
“Great, let’s go,” I called and everyone moved out.
Jamie, Summer, and I packed into my SUV. Ian, Will, and Dusty headed out in Ian’s pick-up. We crossed town and turned up Morrigon Hill. I sat in the back while Jamie drove. Summer tried the radio stations. There was nothing but static.
“How is it that everything just stops?” Summer asked. “It all just stopped.” She snapped off the radio.
“I haven’t seen an airplane in days. Sky is completely empty,” I added as I looked out the window. We passed a dense pine forest, the green leaves making a thick canopy, the ground covered in pink needles.
“Makes you wonder, right? How many man-made things out there are dependent on electricity, oil, fuel? With no one around to push a button, what prevents missiles from going off or dams from collapsing?” Jamie questioned.
“I guess we’re screwed either way,” I said, popping a cartridge into my gun. I rolled down the window. “Slow up” I called to Jamie.
An undead man plodded out of the woods and into the ditch that led downhill toward town. As we rolled up on him, he stopped and looked at the SUV. I leaned out the window and took a shot. His neck snapped back as the bullet hit him between the eyes, and he fell into the ditch.
“Christ, that water runs downhill and into the stream,” Jamie said, putting the SUV into park.
I grabbed some medical gloves and jumped out, handing a pair to Jamie. We pulled the gloves on and went over to the body.
“Recognize him?” I asked as we stood over the body.
Jamie shook his head.
We lifted the heavy man, carried him to the bank, and dropped him into the forest. We climbed back into the SUV.
Summer was staring out the window at the dead body.
“We need to tell people to boil their water,” Jamie said as he put the SUV back in gear.
Summer rolled the window back up. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” she recited absently, “the beatitudes, Matthew 5.5. Yeah, right.”
Neither I nor Jamie knew what to say. We rode in silence the rest of the way to Mara Hunting Club.
When we got there, Ian’s truck was parked at the very end of the long driveway. The club sat in the middle of a large field. The shooting range was set down in a pit with an earthen retaining wall. From the end of the driveway you could see the roof above the shooting stand. The club itself was a large log-cabin with arching windows that looked out onto the field.
What caught us all off guard was the fact that there were cars in the parking lot. There was not another town within an hour’s driving distance.
“Was there an event or something?” I asked Summer.
She looked surprised. “Not that I know of.”
We got out of the SUV and joined Ian’s group. I had brought my binoculars with me. I crawled into the back of Ian’s truck and leaned on the roof. I focused the binoculars to get a better look.